Brisbane’s empire has cracked & the Bears must strike while the heavyweights wobble
Parramatta must go all-in on Moses Leota
Parramatta’s recruitment has become painfully slow, and losing Junior Paulo while merely circling Moses Leota would confirm a club that reacts to the market instead of controlling it.
Most people reckon Paulo is effectively committed to the Perth Bears, although negotiations remain alive and I still rate the move only a better-than-even chance while the fine print is settled. I think his camp is aiming around $900,000 and Perth are trying to drag that figure back towards earth.
The Eels clearly believe their captain is leaving because they have returned to Leota’s table and intend to make a play from November 1. They should not wait politely. Leota is a champion front-rower, several clubs wanted to speak with him when Penrith granted an early negotiation window, and Parramatta desperately need the credibility his signature would provide.
Even if Paulo somehow stays, find a way to sign Leota. That front row would change how players view the club — and perception is Parramatta’s biggest opponent.
The Bears need Munster as much as they need Paulo
Perth should have a red-hot crack at Cameron Munster because an expansion club cannot open its doors with a collection of useful footballers and a glossy jersey. It needs a face, a leader and somebody who owns the biggest moments.
Munster remains Queensland captain, brings vast experience and is tailor-made for the Bears. Paulo would provide the forward leadership, while Munster would give them the key-position authority they do not currently possess in abundance.
There has been activity behind the scenes and I’ve heard an approach was rejected, while the mail continues to suggest Perth may try again. I think the Bears might have baulked at the figures previously floated, but this is not the moment for stage fright. Sign both if possible. Foundation clubs get one chance to establish their standards before bad habits harden into culture.
Matt King has earned the Blues job
Matt King is the right appointment for New South Wales, and the complaint that he lacks sufficient profile confuses celebrity with coaching ability.
Laurie Daley leaves as a winning coach and King inherits the shield after serving in the Blues setup across the past three series, including assistant roles under Michael Maguire and Daley. He has also completed his apprenticeship with the Rabbitohs and Roosters, so this is continuity without complacency, not some bloke wandering in from the car park.
King was an elite player, won a Brad Fittler Medal and has spent his life in rugby league, but his temperament matters just as much. I’ve found him highly intelligent, level-headed and impressive in front of cameras — valuable traits when Origin week turns every selection into a parliamentary inquiry.
The job is difficult to fill because it is full-time and the candidate pool was hardly a smorgasbord. King knows the machinery. Give him the keys.
Brisbane cannot sack Maguire — but he must bend
How does a defending premier, armed with this much strike, stagger to six wins? Injuries are part of the answer, but they are not an alibi. The more uncomfortable explanation is that Michael Maguire’s message is no longer landing with enough of the Brisbane dressing room.
That does not mean Maguire cannot coach. His record says the opposite. He has won in the UK Super League, at South Sydney, with New Zealand, in State of Origin and, only last season, at Brisbane. Reece Walsh produced electrifying football under him, Xavier Willison surged forward, Ben Talty emerged, Deine Mariner improved and Gehamat Shibasaki went from a train-and-trial deal to Queensland, Australia and a premiership. The suggestion Maguire improves nobody is nonsense.
But there is a pattern here. Maguire’s intensity can transform a side quickly, then begin to drain it. He sets a ferocious standard because that is how he gets results. The problem is that an NRL season cannot be played permanently with the accelerator welded to the floor. Eventually the engine starts coughing smoke, and Brisbane’s is currently visible from the other side of the river.
Payne Haas announcing his departure was destabilising. Ben Te'o walking out after a breakdown in his relationship with Maguire was another warning. The rumblings about players struggling with the regime have followed the coach since he arrived. They could be dismissed while Brisbane were winning. At six victories, they must be confronted.
So should Brisbane sack Maguire? Absolutely not. Removing a premiership-winning coach 12 months after he delivered the club its first title since 2006 would be madness. If the powerbrokers made that call, they should clear out their own offices on the way. They appointed him, celebrated with him and benefited from the hard edge he brought. The tie-and-blazer brigade cannot suddenly pretend this was somebody else’s experiment.
The responsibility now sits with Maguire to bend without breaking. He does not need to become soft, and the players do not deserve a permanent harbour cruise. They must accept that premierships require discomfort. But Maguire has to better judge when to drive, when to release the pressure and which players need a blast rather than another blast furnace.
Brisbane still have a top-four-calibre core in Walsh, Kotoni Staggs, Pat Carrigan and Willison, with Ben Hunt providing leadership and Dane Gagai arriving. That talent removes every excuse next season. The Broncos should keep Maguire, resist any cosmetic extension over summer and make the terms brutally simple: adapt the method, reconnect with the dressing room and return to the finals. If he cannot, the decision will make itself.
Beetson remains the essential Indigenous trailblazer
Arthur Beetson sits at the front of my favourite Indigenous players because greatness is not merely what a footballer does with the ball; it is the path he clears for everybody coming behind him.
Beetson became the first Aboriginal person to captain Australia in 1970, combining the menace of an enforcer with hands and vision more commonly found in a halfback. Cliff Lyons was a footballing wizard, Greg Inglis was pure beast mode and Preston Campbell remains one of the toughest players, pound for pound, ever to lace a boot.
Campbell was also a joy: a Dally M Medal winner, Penrith’s five-eighth in the 2003 premiership season and a proud product of tiny Tingha. Gorden Tallis completes the five because he was a complete weapon; one former Australian player even reckons he is the greatest back-rower ever.
That is what Indigenous Round should celebrate — brilliance, toughness, identity and influence stretching across generations.
Benji needs an apprenticeship, while Newcastle have found a gem
Benji is not an NRL coach at this stage, and sentimentality will not lift the second-last Tigers out of the mire. He needs to coach younger players in the lower grades, develop his voice and learn the craft before returning to the top job. Famous football instincts are not a coaching certificate.
Newcastle, meanwhile, may have unearthed a potential superstar in Manu Leiua. He has played eight games, often in limited bench minutes, but already looks like a halfback living inside a second-rower’s body; the cut-out pass, physical presence and work without the ball demand attention.
The officials also need to rediscover the play-the-ball rule. Casey McLean and Milky Jenkins often fail to touch the ball with their foot, and Penrith are masters at extracting the advantage. The crackdown existed, then quietly evaporated. Rules cannot become optional simply because the best sides exploit official fatigue better than everyone else.
